Justice is a universal desire of conscious individuals. In
modern society, critically important organizations work to
ensure that justice is established and preserved. Those
individuals who work to uphold justice deserve our thanks, our
gratitude, and our support. My purpose in this message is to
support those who work for justice by addressing matters that
any individual within our existing institutions of justice would
find difficult or impossible to address.

The most basic principle of economic justice is the protection
of private property and the protection of the right to freely
exchange that property. Modern governments, however,
consistently and routinely violate the rights of property
owners, with the assumption - the incorrect assumption - that
government can utilize property more efficiently than its lawful
owners can. As institutionalized theft by property violation
becomes increasingly routine and accepted, it has far-reaching
consequences for the character and morality of society as a
whole. The injustice of theft permeates society and creates
disrespect for the law. On the part of ruling elites, the
perception is created that society is to be exploited for the
benefit of the rulers. Incentives are created to generate and
promote ignorance throughout society to conceal the injustice of
theft. As the institutionalized violence of government is used
to violate the rights of individuals to keep and trade their own
property, the violation of economic justice inevitably results
in the undermining of justice in every other part of society.

Although the establishment of justice and order is a key
responsibility of the United States government, the sheer size
of the United States economy, and the enormous wealth that is
devoted to government, makes the United States government a
tempting prize for any organization or collection of bandits
ruthless and clever enough to seize it. A criminal organization
able to conduct its activities from within the center of power
of the United States government would have powerful advantages
over other criminal groups. Such an organization, having seized
control of the United States government, would derive enormous
power from the taxes extracted from the wealthiest society in
the history of the world. Such an organization would be able to
manage present objections to its corruption with lavish promises
of future benefits, in a form of generalized bribery. Such an
organization, which would necessarily have great financial
sophistication, would be able to use the credit of the United
States government to issue trillions of dollars of debt, to fund
its corrupt activities and neutralize objections to its
illegitimacy, and in so doing, burden the responsible citizens
among its victims with crushing financial obligations. Very
importantly, this criminal group could use its control of the
United States monetary system to print money to advance its own
purposes of theft, control, and enslavement.

Such an organization would be able to protect its shipments of
illicit drugs into the United States, while using the power of
law enforcement organizations to imprison their would-be
competitors, and would subsequently be able to distribute those
illicit drugs and launder the enormous profits in the huge and minutely
regulated financial markets of the United States. This criminal
organization would use its powers to convert military,
intelligence, and law enforcement bureacracies into instruments
for political control and the domination and subjection of
society, while discrediting, destroying, and murdering honest
individuals within those services that work to root out
corruption and faithfully serve their fellow citizens.

This organization, like so many murderous governments throughout
history, would see the sacrifice of thousands of its citizens,
in an event such as the September 11 attacks, as a small cost in
order to perpetuate its barbaric control. This collection of
gangsters would find it in their interest to foment conflict and
initiate wars throughout the world, in order to divert attention
from their misconduct and criminality. The true nature of such
a regime would find its clearest expression in the satanic
violence currently ongoing in Iraq.

Perhaps worst of all, such an organization would usurp and
destroy the historical leadership of the United States toward
human freedom, and would, while constantly and loudly preaching
the glory of liberty, work to lead the world into a new dark age
of slavery and terror.

This seizure of the United States government by an international
criminal conspiracy is a long-established reality. The murder
of the United States President in 1963, the associated murders
and institutional subversion, and the manipulation of official
inquiries and public opinion, was effected by individuals within
organizational structures that play a central role in the United
States government up to the present day. The coup regime
founded with the murder of President John Kennedy utilizes a
number of mechanisms to perpetuate its criminal rule.

The most important of these mechanisms is government control of
the economy. The government's enormous tax revenues, and the
even larger government spending, give to the coup regime the
means and motivation to sustain its rule. The constantly
expanding regulation of business makes it possible for the coup
regime to further impose its will on private economic activity
and conditions the people under its rule to accept whatever
totalitarian measures the regime deems necessary. The policies
and actions of the coup regime are constantly masked by official
deception, as well as the subversion of the free press through
infiltration and secret manipulations.

On a deeper level, however, the deceit that the coup regime
utilizes to justify its policies is intimately linked with the
deceit that is inherent in policies that seize the property of
individuals for the benefit of the politically powerful. The
most subtle and dangerous of these policies, and therefore most
similar to the rule of the coup regime itself, is the imposition
of a paper money system throughout the United States. This
far-reaching violation of property rights undermines the
security of property in a way that works to the benefit of the
politically powerful individuals that control the monetary
system. The political and military disasters, such as the wars
in Vietnam and Iraq, that an illegitimate coup regime uses
against the people who pay its bills, are closely tied to the
effects of inflationary paper monetary systems, which are
themselves intimately linked with financial and political
disasters throughout history.

The blatant violations of the Constitution's limitations on the
economic role of the government, accomplished through many
subtle usurpations over many decades, are perhaps even more
pernicious than, and are certainly a key motivation for, the
violent seizure of the United States government. In order to
establish a firm basis for justice and sound government, the
economic role of the government must be reexamined in every
detail. It must be recognized that arguments for government
control of the economy, and government redistribution of
economic resources, are generally misguided or even shameless
lies to advance enslavement and conceal theft and murder.
Furthermore, it must, once again, be recognized that the most
successful means to ensure justice, secure domestic tranquility,
and promote prosperity is to ensure the security of private
property.

Directions to Freedom, Part One

Hello. Thank you for listening. I have an intense personal
desire for freedom, and I need your help so that we can,
together, continue to enjoy the benefits of freedom and work
toward the more-perfect realization of liberty and justice in
our society.
My effort to realize greater freedom in our world is a long-term
effort, and this message is a first step to begin a dialogue
with you that, I expect, will enable us to take action in the
future to have more secure, more prosperous, and happier lives.

My desire for freedom is inevitably centered on the role of
government in society. From a practical perspective, my desire
is to see the cost of governmental services reduced and the
quality of those services increased. On a philosophical level,
I, personally, perceive a responsibility to do what I can to
continue the admirable legacy of justice, prosperity, and
tranquility that has been established in the United States, and
directly confront the forces that undermine that legacy.

There are many sound reasons for optimism in our modern world.
Our ever-accelerating scientific and technical progress is
daily creating new wonders. Our scientific understanding of the
basis of life makes it possible to reduce disease and lengthen
life. Our communications technology enables individuals to
create, collect, store, and share information in ways that were
unavailable to the most powerful governments within the recent
past, with far-reaching benefits and consequences that have only
yet begun to be perceived.

These and many other developments are part of the economic
growth that is an essential aspect of modern society. Economic
growth is necessary for individuals to continue to have
ever-improving lives. The belief that life can be better for
future generations is one of the greatest contributions of the
American spirit to the world, and we cannot allow that tradition
to be undermined or destroyed.

The most basic factor in economic growth is secure private
property and the freedom to use and exchange that property as
the owner sees fit. Security of property
was a basic principle at the founding of the United States, and
has been essential to the ability of individuals to provide for
their loved ones, their associates, and those in need.
Private property is the most successful basis for structuring
society that humanity has ever known. Where property rights
have been protected, societies have prospered and thrived, and
where private property has been undermined or abolished, some of
the worst terrors known to man have taken place. The United
States government was founded with great respect for private
property, and the society of the United States has consequently
flourished, but communist and socialist governments that
abolished or disregarded private property created poverty,
repression, and murder on a truly enormous scale.

Even in the United States, however, there has been a continual
erosion of protection for private property, justified by the
belief that government is an efficient instrument for the
positive direction of society. The belief that government,
freed of the limits imposed by private property, can utilize
resources more efficiently than their current owners is strongly
contradicted by experience and history. Governments lack the
profit and loss incentives that individuals and private
organizations must use to determine whether their efforts are
successful and should be continued. Instead, governments judge
the success of their actions through public opinion, which can
be manipulated in very effective ways, creating irresistible
incentives for governments to use deception as a standard
operating procedure. When governments are able to confiscate
the resources of their citizens to fund schemes that need only
be justified by lies and deception, enormous disasters can
result. As government policies create disasters - whether
economic, social, or military - there is an ever-greater
motivation to use deception to justify those policies, leading
to a systematic subversion of truth, honesty, and morality in
society.

The problems confronting the world today are made more
intractable by the sophisticated processes used to obscure and
conceal the truth of the difficulties facing us. We are right
to recognize the blessings of freedom, but there are those, even
in positions of great power and responsibility, who usurp the
banner of freedom in order to justify their wicked schemes of
theft, murder, and enslavement. One of the greatest problems
facing humanity today is the deliberate creation of conflict in
order to extend the control of a tiny elite, who seek to rule
the world from the shadows. Their primary tools are subtle -
deceit, deception, and subversion - but they are by no means
harmless. Indeed, their drive to control and dominate the world
has motivated some of the greatest tragedies and crimes of our
time.

However, this drive for control is an inevitable development
when the government recognizes few practical limits on its
power. When the government can control how private property is
used, and especially when the government controls the monetary
system that is used to exchange private property, the government
has the mechanisms and the motivation to control individuals to
the smallest detail. To prevent themselves from being enslaved,
the powerful masters of our existing governments use every means
at their disposal, including bribery, theft, and murder, to
control those governments, which are imperfect institutions
operated by imperfect individuals.

In order to properly address these very serious matters, it is
necessary to recognize the importance of enduring principles for
setting a positive direction that we can pursue, mindful of the
real threats that we must overcome.

As a practical matter, security of property is a critical aspect
of a functioning modern society. Without the ability to hold,
control, and exchange private property, individuals will
inevitably use violence and deceit to obtain the resources they
need and desire. As well, it is not adequately recognized that
our existing monetary system undermines the security of private
property in a powerful, subtle, and far-reaching way. As the
power of the government increases through encroachments on
private property, the moral values of individuals and
communities are increasingly attacked by a political system
where deceit is routine and accepted, and the only standard is
power. This inexorable attack on morality and conscience must
be opposed and overcome.

Another basic principle that must guide our course is respect
for the freedom of thought. This means that individuals must
consistently repudiate the efforts of governments to control the
beliefs of their citizens. In the United States, the
establishment of an official church is recognized as
illegitimate and is constitutionally prohibited. However,
government control of the schools that shape minds is pervasive
in today's world. The imperative to defend the freedom of
conscience must lead us to eliminate the role of the government
in education, and leave parents and communities free to raise
their children as they see fit. We must come to recognize that
a government-run school for universal education is no more
legitimate than a government-run church for universal religious
training.

In future messages, I will describe how these principles can be
applied in practical ways to build a better future for
ourselves, by building upon opportunities and confronting
problems that we perceive in the world around us. I would
welcome your feedback and support. Thank you for listening.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

policy objectives to secure lasting peace and prosperity, part one

We pray that [...] all who yearn for freedom may experience its few
spiritual blessings. Those who have freedom will understand, also, its
heavy responsibilities [...] - Farewell
Address, Dwight D. Eisenhower

There is a basic conflict in the world today between the power of
organizations and the liberty of individuals. The greatest
achievements of human societies have historically been linked to the
freedom of individuals to pursue their unique course. Human liberty
has a spiritual benefit for individuals that can easily be overlooked,
but it also has a profoundly beneficial economic effect for societies.
Ample historical evidence, supported by economic insights,
demonstrates that the economic and cultural progress of free societies
with secure property rights is unparalleled by that produced by other
forms of government.

The progress of free individuals cooperating in a liberal society is
inevitably uncertain, as it is determined by the autonomous choices of
individuals coordinating primarily on the basis of market exchanges.
Individuals have a very real desire for certainty in their lives and
in their actions. By becoming part of organizations, such as those
responsible for upholding the law or providing military security,
individuals can perceive that their efforts are directly advancing
ideals of justice under the law or security of person and property
against powerful international threats, and thereby gain personal
satisfaction and a sense of noble purpose that may not be enjoyed by
the laborer or trader.

However, organizations are no less imperfect than the individuals that
they are comprised of. In fact, governmental organizations (such as
security and law enforcement bureaucracies) that utilize coercion to
achieve their objectives create conditions that select individuals for
leadership who are able to carry out their responsibilities despite
the fact that the operation of the organization at times results in
perceptible injustice and unfairness. In the best case, this selects
for strong individuals with the capacity to faithfully and honestly
serve others without being enfeebled by emotional responses to their
duties. However, these selection mechanisms over time tend toward
promoting the qualities of cruel indifference to suffering and
injustice, and, worse, a willingness to create and exploit injustice
for the benefit of the individuals that are in temporary positions of
power, based on their leadership role in organizations.

As the governmental "race to the bottom" proceeds over time,
the State gradually attempts to extend its control over society to a
greater and greater degree. This process is the descent to tyranny
and despotism that has been demonstrated in numerous societies
throughout history.

Prudence indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should
not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all
Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while
Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and
Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to
reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their
Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for
their future Security. - Declaration
of Independence

History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a
handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new
roads. - Charles de
Gaulle

However, the descent toward tyranny is not inevitable. In the face of
institutional efforts toward control and domination, conscious
individuals can direct their efforts to advancing liberty and creating
a lasting framework for the preservation of freedom and provision of
security. In the United States, basic principles of human rights have
been constitutionally recognized, with restrictions placed on the powers of the
federal government and the state governments to abridge these rights.

Despite long-standing protections for the basic rights of (among
others) justice before the law, freedom of expression, and freedom of
conscience, there are significant factors undermining these liberties.
The inexorable growth of government capabilities is a key aspect of
the erosion of liberty. As the government obtains powers in new
circumstances and settings, those powers will, inevitably, be used to
constrain and perhaps destroy the liberties of the people.

The most important source of power for modern governments is the
political control of paper monetary systems. Governments are able to
pursue destructive policies by taxing the users of
government-controlled monetary systems. The tax of inflation is
nearly imperceptible on a day-to-day basis, but provides enormous
resources for those governments that utilize it.

Another central means used by modern governments to control societies
is the control of telecommunications, using state-regulated or
state-owned enterprises, or both. The control of the minds of subject
individuals is subtly effected through the control of the sources of
information available to those individuals.

Of paramount importance for the control of subject populations,
however, is state ownership and control of education. The
consequences of the current near-universal acceptance of state control
of education are pernicious and far-reaching.

Several policy objectives that can identified and pursued in order to
address these threats to liberty are as follows:

the transition to a asset-based monetary system not controlled by
governments. The means of transition to such a monetary system from
the current paper-ticket monetary system (which
has been accomplished before) is a matter of considerable study
and several proposals, and will be addressed here in forthcoming
writings.

the denationalization of the means of communication, and in particular
the elimination of government ownership of the electromagnetic
spectrum. The premises supposedly justifying government control of
telecommunication are technologically nonsensical and entirely
specious, yet provide convenient rationales useful for masking the
reality of brute-force control of the right of free expression.

the separation of school and state. Just as the beliefs of
individuals in many societies is respected through the absence of
state religion, so should the freedom of thought be respected by
leaving the education of individuals to private organizations.

More will be written about each of these three areas in subsequent
postings.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

pursuing justice by experiencing its opposite

This blog is about the pursuit of truth and justice, and the
development of technology to assist in the realization of these
ideals. The existing systems to establish justice in society are of
the utmost value and importance. Human societies have derived immense
benefit from impartial and equitable systems of justice, and great
harm can be wreaked by unfair and biased legal systems.

However distant at this point, the development of information currency
is part of an effort to create systems for collective decision-making
that will have the integrity and reliability necessary for judicial
processes. This positive effort is inevitably a lengthy and uncertain
process, but its enormous value makes it a worthy goal. Another means
to improve the systems of justice in human society is to confront the
present imperfections that exist. What basic concepts can be used to
recognize imperfections in the justice system as it exists today?

Only someone who is blind or who finds it convenient to be blind can
overlook the fact that the threat of totalitarianism is a question of
our age. - Conscience in Its Age, Pope Benedict
XVI

A basic principle that must guide any standard of justice is equality
of all individuals before the law. There is significant information indicating
that the national security apparatus of the United States is
systematically used to make powerful individuals effectively exempt from prohibitions on the transport and
sale of certain chemicals, such as heroin and cocaine. The fact that powerful, highly placed,
individuals are able to violate certain laws with impunity calls into
question the validity of such laws, and promotes the progressive
erosion of justice and respect for law throughout society. The
enormous monopoly profits from illicit, large-scale, state-protected
pharmaceutical commerce enable a self-perpetuating criminal enterprise
to dominate the security apparatus of the state and thereby subjugate
society as a whole, creating far-reaching negative effects that may
not be obviously linked to legal prohibitions.

Additionally, the laws enacted by legislatures must also be recognized
as potentially imperfect attempts by imperfect people to realize
ideals of justice. Where political law attempts to overrule the
realities of nature, and forbid the existence of nature's gifts, such
law must be perceived as suspect at best. The cannabis plant is
known, despite decades of official propaganda and deception, to be one
of the most useful plants known to humanity.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him
is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in
order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is
in reality expressing the highest respect for law. - Letter from
Birmingham Jail, Martin
Luther King, Jr.

Given my belief that cannabis prohibition is the least defensible and
most unjust aspect of the prohibitionist regime existing throughout
the world today, I decided in March 2006 to cultivate cannabis in full
view of the world. From March 2006 to 6 June 2006, I grew 16 cannabis
plants outside on my third-floor balcony in beautiful
Irvine, California. Given my conviction that no permission should
be necessary for anyone to grow cannabis in any quantity, I
deliberately did not seek permission of any kind, and did not obtain a
doctor's recommendation for the use of cannabis, which would have made
my garden relatively acceptable under California state law.

Until the plants were torn out after a raid by pistol-wielding Irvine
police officers, they had each grown to be several feet tall, and
began to show the sexual differentiation characteristic of cannabis (a
dioecious plant species). The plants were fragrant and beautiful, and
for the months that I was able to cultivate them, I was greatly
impressed by their rapid growth and responsiveness to environmental
conditions.

At what exact point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is
taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one
crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series
of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not
matter, and there seems no point in arguing about any one of them
individually - especially at a time when the thoughts of the person
arrested are wrapped tightly about the big question: "What
for?" - and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together
implacably constitute the arrest. -
The Gulag Archipelago,
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

In the course of the arrest for violation of California
Health and Safety Code 11358, I chose to not cooperate, given my
objection to the injustice of prohibition. I was entirely limp and
had to be carried to the police car, resulting in a charge of
obstructing an officer in the course of his official duties.

Eventually, I decided to accept deferred adjudication of the charge of
cultivating cannabis under California
Penal Code 1000, resulting in 16 weeks of weekly meetings, which
are currently underway. In addition, rather than continue to contest
my rights under law to refuse to cooperate in the legal system, I decided to plead guilty to
obstruction, resulting in a sentence of 26 8-hour days worth of labor, conducted
at the beautiful Mason
Regional Park in Irvine.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

economic calculation applied to the pursuit of truth, part one

A central design issue for collaborative systems is how those systems bias the collective effort of their participants. To the extent that the systems support collaboration, they introduce the contribution of other participants into the consciousness of a single user. A very desirable goal for a collaborative information system is to bias the collective efforts of its users toward the pursuit and elaboration of truth.

Assuming that there is universality in truth, the pursuit of truth provides a common direction in which individuals may strive without otherwise coordinating their efforts. Regardless of the universality of truth, the personal perception of truth can be highly subjective. One of the ways that the truth of various ideas (such as scientific theories) are assessed is by the number and distinction of their proponents. In this case, the public statements of truth as perceived by individuals can be aggregated to arrive at an estimate of reality usable by a single individual.

At times, however, mass delusions or systemic biases can lead to the advancement of (sometimes dangerous) falsehoods as truth, held by broad majorities of esteemed opinion-makers. In a scientific context, the persecution of Galileo for advancing a heliocentric view of the solar system is an example of (what we now consider as) truth confronting officially sanctioned falsity. The racial theories of certain regimes, and similar manifestations of insanity, particularly apparent in socialist societies, can be seen in hindsight to not only be profoundly wrong, but also to have brought about severe consequences for many individuals and entire societies.

The question of what ideas, perceived as actionable truth today, will be recognized as disastrous falsehoods in the future is not the subject of this posting. Rather, the objective here is to recognize the possibility of using economic calculation, applied to information management, for the recognition of truth and the repudiation of falsity. Market transactions denominated in terms of money prices enable individuals to calculate the results of their efforts in coordination with others through economic exchange. The process of economic calculation, where individual actors in an economy are able to calculate the results of their actions through profit and loss, enables exquisite coordination of productive activities, and it is worthwile to seek to apply market mechanisms in new areas. The distributed coordination enabled by economic calculation, where individual direction can be derived from the complex interactions of a large number of independent participants, suggests that the pursuit of truth can be advanced by the application of economic mechanisms to information.

financial mechanisms for political coordination, part one

The unprecedented economic growth experienced by humanity has created an
extended order that is exquisitely sensitive to disruptions. The essential
need for stability for productive economic activity grows from the
practical need to ensure the welfare and survival of many hundreds of
millions of human beings. Highly complex economic arrangements have been
developed in human society, and must be safeguarded in order to ensure
individuals a high standard of living.

This essential need for stability to enable economic activity reinforces
the natural resistance to political change among those concerned with
human welfare. However, the specialization of labor in modern society has
extended to a specialization in political control by ever-increasing
numbers of individuals. The moral and ethical imperfections of political
control are such that, all too frequently, those who are most efficient at
exercising political control are those who are most indifferent to human
suffering and unconcerned with human welfare in general.

The extension and expansion of political control in virtually every
aspect of human society is abetted by present social and economic norms
such as paper money and income taxation, and is resisted by uncoordinated
and relatively weak forces in society. Even where present policies can be
recognized as having significant negative consequences in the future,
political actors are able to obfuscate facts and create confusion in order
to realize their personal short-term objectives.

There are few clearer examples of this fact than in the marketing of
international aggression. Political actors know that they are able to
provoke mass populations to support enslavement and mass murder in the
name of war, thereby securing and enhancing the position of political
classes. Herman Goering described the phenomenon clearly in the following
conversation with Gustav Gilbert during an intermission in his trial at
Nuremberg (recounted in Nuremberg Diary, with thanks to snopes.com):

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to
his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful
for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why
would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the
best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece.
Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in
England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is
understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who
determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people
along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a
Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people
have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and
in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you
have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the
pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It
works the same way in any country."

The political actors that initiate and promote aggression and conflict
often recognize that their statements need not closely reflect reality,
given their short-term desire to maintain political control and the
inability of subject populations to hold political actors to account for
their actions. Given the clear motivations among political actors to
initiate, perpetuate, and promote aggression and conflict, those who are
concerned with human welfare must seek new means to counter the incentives
that political actors have directing their actions toward large-scale
destruction.

The effectiveness of markets in aggregating information suggests that
economic mechanisms may be useful in addressing this problem. In
particular, financial markets are able simultaneously to aggregate large
amounts of information about present conditions as well as best estimates
among market participants of future conditions.

Additionally, new information technology may be examined for its
applicability to this problem. A key issue is the extremely large number
of individuals whose opinions must be incorporated into collective
decision regarding political matters, given the need for broad-based
agreement to secure the legitimacy of political decisions.

Democratic elections are widely used to legitimize governments in the
modern world. Elections have a demonstrated ability to establish a
political order that is widely supported, and the mechanism of democratic
electoral choice can control excesses that are present in other systems of
government. However, the democratic system of government suffers from
several faults, which are increasingly apparent in modern society:

a failure to incorporate the future costs of present actions into
decisions, and

an inability to quantitatively correlate commitments and actions with
basic principles and standards.

The first flaw is, in industrialized Western societies, leading to a
demographic crisis based on an inability to incorporate future financial
projections into political decisions. The second flaw is leading to an
unmooring of political systems, notably in the United States, from the
basic principles of liberty, justice, and common decency on which
societies are based.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

immigration and traditional values

America has throughout its existence been a refuge and a sanctuary
for individuals throughout the world. The stability and security of
our society has enabled hard-working individuals and their families to
make better lives for themselves, and in doing so, contribute to the
wealth of our society. As we are increasingly concerned about the
stability and security of our society, we must recognize how
beneficial immigration has been for our society, and how important it
is that we draw upon our historical legacy of unrestricted
immigration.

For well over a century, immigration to the United States was
virtually unrestricted, and the society and economy of the US
flourished. Over time, as individuals have come to take for granted
the blessings of life in our free society, appeals to exclude other
people from the United States have been more and more successful.
From the anti-Catholic quotas of the early 20th century to the
present-day restrictions that are often more like campaign literature
than legislation, restrictions on immigration have often been driven
more by political passions than principle and reason.

The ideal of equality before the law and its practical realization
has been among the greatest contributions of America to human
civilization. The tendency of individuals to appeal to group
citizenship erodes this magnficient accomplishment, as individuals
seek political advantage for their group by creating laws that
disadvantage others. The authority of the law is degraded by its use
to exclude and hinder others, and laws restricting immigration are an
example of this degradation.

Without considering principle, however, there is the fact that
immigration contributes to the wealth of our society. Allowing
individuals to come to participate in our society, in our free market
economy, leads to contributions to us all, in the form of lower prices
and higher wages.

Therefore, two clear recommendations are:

laws restricting immigration should be eliminated and immigrants
currently in the United States should be free to pursue residence and
employment in the United States, and

immigrants should be barred from receiving public benefits, with
such benefits available only to citizens. This would ensure that
people do not abuse the benefits of freedom and instead become wards
of the state when coming to the United States.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Economic Calculation for Physical Security and Criminal Justice

The topic addressed in this space is technology for liberty and
justice. Any effort toward the realization of these highest of
philosophical ideals must also directly address more obvious
factors, for example the enhancement of liberty and justice while
increasing security at the same time.

Security of one's person and possessions is a basic need of
individuals, and the provision of physical security is of
paramount practical importance. A balancing of liberty and
security allows individuals to pursue actions that they choose in
any way that does not violate another individual's person or
property.

Threats to security are not always effectively addressed in
existing systems of justice. In particular, serious threats that
are obvious to those with the closest knowledge of the
circumstances (such as a violent individual threatening an
estranged romantic partner), may not be effectively addressed,
while the full weight of the law is applied to address relatively
trivial offenses.

The apparently senseless misallocation of resources in the
criminal justice system is an example of the socialist
calculation problem. This problem arises where activities in
an extended society are centrally directed, without the use of
market exchange to coordinate the actions of individuals within
the whole.

A primary focus of the Rothbardix operating system will be
information systems to enable economic calculation in criminal
justice. By issuing economic instruments indicating customer
satisfaction with the processes of criminal justice, it will be
possible to introduce economic calculation into the distributed
enterprise of physical security provision. The software in the
Rothbardix OS for managing sensor systems will use economic
instruments that are linked by market exchanges to other economic
instruments representing desired security and criminal justice
objectives.

In order to realize this objective, it is necessary to develop
systems for economic calculation with information currency, and
systems for information currency utilization in large-scale sensor
networks, to name just two outstanding examples.